The idea that the Republican Party needs reforming has gained traction online.

And three Republican Web operatives, all veterans of rival top-tier presidential campaigns, are helping lead that movement.

Believing that their party needs to rebuild whether or not Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wins the White House, they have started a blog, The Next Right.

“We’re all interested in building the apparatus, the new conservative apparatus, because we feel like the old one has broken down,” said Dayton, who was briefly a McCain staffer last spring. He noted that even if McCain wins, Democrats are likely to control Congress. “If he loses, it’s probably even worse. And rebuilding a majority in Congress is going to take a long-term effort.”

Those within the GOP, however, see conservative blogs lagging behind liberal ones when it comes to one area where they can help candidates directly: campaign contributions. ActBlue, a website founded in 2004 that takes donations for Democrats, says that it has taken in nearly $57 million in candidate contributions since its inception. Meanwhile, the Republican version, Slatecard, has raised about $410,787 since it was launched about nine months ago, according to that website.

“Blogs like RedState and others usually provide more of an in-depth philosophical view or clearinghouse on issues of the day as opposed to generating grassroots activism or financial contributions for like-minded candidates,” a Republican strategist said. “A lot of Republican-leaning blogs claim to be doing the same thing, but they are mostly ineffective on that front.”

But the progress Henke, Ruffini and Dayton seek is at the congressional level, where they’d like to see more domestic offshore oil drilling, less spending and an end to earmarks. “[Former Arkansas Gov.] Mike Huckabee’s (R) campaign was basically correct that the Reagan coalition was over,” Dayton wrote when the blog launched.

Their focus on Congress comes despite their experience. Ruffini, the Web guru for President Bush’s 2004 campaign, worked briefly for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Henke was a consultant for former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), and Dayton joined McCain after he clinched the Republican nomination. None stayed very long. Ruffini left to start his own consulting firm and Henke’s candidate flamed out. Dayton left his role advising McCain amid criticism for posting a video link to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, when McCain was trying to stay out of the fray.

“Everything a campaign staffer should be doing should be advancing John McCain,” Dayton said. “For two seconds, I wasn’t.”

At the very least, his departure has enabled him to speak more freely. While he and his partners strongly back McCain, they know that he’s “a little bit of an odd-ball Republican,” said Dayton, who previously had his own blog on the presidential race, eyeon08.com .

“The brand of the party will probably have to be built at the congressional level,” he said. “I don’t suspect John McCain is going to [do that].”

To start the rebuilding, they’re working to oust Rep. Don Young, the 18-term Republican from Alaska with a penchant for earmarks. They’ve asked readers to donate to Young’s primary opponent, Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.

“[The right] needs a purge,” Henke wrote. “We should start with people like Don Young, and those who enable them.”

The bloggers also haven’t been afraid to give Democrats credit for stoking grassroots energy. While Ruffini has knocked Obama as a “cultural icon” whose celebrity can backfire, he and Dayton have written that conservatives can learn from Obama’s organization. For example, Obama offered an explanation for his support of the latest foreign surveillance bill after 18,000 of his supporters took to his website to oppose the bill. Ruffini credited the supporters for Obama’s action. Ruffini even went as far as suggesting the pressure the online supporters put on Obama was “revolutionary.”

Henke, who works with Dayton at the public affairs firm New Media Strategies, said that they hope to take a “big-picture” view of politics not seen on other conservative blogs.

“I would like to think we can help define the way the online right perceives itself, our priorities and our strategies,” wrote Henke, who started blogging in 2003 at QandO.net and who conducts his interviews over e-mail.

And they have support among fellow bloggers. Erick Erickson, founder of the prominent conservative blog RedState, said that he has tried to focus on holding together a center-right coalition instead of saving “the party for the sake of the party.” But that doesn’t mean that the party needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up.

“And I don’t see our role as crashing the gates and establishing a new order,” he said. “Our role, I think, is better served preserving and harnessing the parts of the party that work, throwing out the parts that are broken or corrupted, and connecting the grass roots and leaders.”